Just another mission, catch a kishin, destroy it and be done. Why was this one so much harder on her?
Maka stood along the beach, the salty waves rhythmaticly lapping at her feet as she stared off into the sky. Just before heading out for their mission her heart hadn't felt right, and both corona and soul had hinted at their feelings for her. This was their third day on the island since the day they left in search of the kishin egg and her mind just became more and more clouded.
Just recently they had snuck into a club for they had gotten information that one who had confronted the egg went their regularly to seek out the person and get more information to add to the little they already had. The person had not been there and they were found out and thrown out of the club. Well soul before Maka, she had stayed and gotten a little information about the person. Her partner, after being thrown out, had gone and fallen asleep on a bench and was still sleeping when Maka came out. Not wanting to bother him since he had gotten little sleep the past few days, she had gone down to the beach to think her thoughts through; mostly they were memories of her times with soul and corona.
"Why are things concerning the heart always so mysterious and painful?" Maka muttered under her breath.
Soul awoke later into the night with a pain in his neck from sleeping in an awkward position. As he got up to stand he noticed a girl down on the beach, sandy blond hair blowing in the sea breeze and feet bear. It took moments for him to realize it was his meister, though it was probably the form fitting black dress she was wearing that threw him off. She had worn it to make her look older and to get into the club. His red eyes widened slightly when she turned slightly so that he saw he profile, the look pained him and he had a feeling he was a reason for it. Maka had been offly quiet and withdrawn lately but kept a smiling or serious face around him; not once had she show this face to him or anyone else for that matter.
Out of the corner of her eye Maka spotted soul sitting upright and staring at her. Face slightly flush she turned to snap at him for staring, and for seeing her upset, when she stopped; somehow she began to see all the different scenarios that would happen should she get involved with her partner. None made her all too happy. Then came the visions of her and corona's future, they were very much the same though she found more dark and depressing incidents with corona than she did soul. Maka shook her head to clear her mind then looked up at soul who had his eyebrows raised.
"What? Haven't I told you before it's not polite to stare at others?" Maka snapped.
"You stared right on back." Soul retorted with a sigh as he stood up.
With a bit of a stomp in her step Maka went to retrieve her shoes and catch up with her partner. Soul didn't show it but he was a bit down, again another argument. Soon they'd make up then another would come about; it was an endless cycle he wished to discard. Wished that they could put it all behind them and imagine themselves in a better place; though he had a feeling he was the only one thinking these thoughts. After moments of unbearable silence next to his partner he finally spoke up, trying hard not to piss her off any more than she already was.
"So did you get any information? On the victim I mean…"
Out of her bra she pulled out a piece of paper, this made soul go red in the face. "W-why did you put it t-there?!" it didn't come out as he wanted.
Maka didn't look at him as she replied, "I don't have any pockets and you had been thrown out by the time I got the information. Plus I didn't want anyone to accidentally or purposely pull it from my hand. Anyways yes, I did get some information. Looks like the person in question lives at this address and is quite the vicious man. Recently he hasn't been going into the club because of some reason; some of the goers believe he was banned."
Soul nodded, blush having faded, "so we'll be paying him a visit tomorrow?"
"Yep."
The two woke up the next morning in their motel room; each sleeping in their own bed, soul towards the door and Maka in the other direction. The information on the kishin egg hinted at irregular activities and that it would strike whenever and wherever. With information and such activity as this they would need their sleep and would have to be on guard at all times. Maka was already dress and looking over the information again when soul woke up, it looked as if his partner hadn't gotten much sleep and she didn't even say good morning to him. There was also the probability that there was still the irritation lingering from that night. Soul gathered his cloths and went to the bathroom to change, knowing full well that Maka would blow up again if he changed out in the open.
"How about I treat us to some breakfast?" he asked as he walked out of the bathroom, groomed and looking cool. (Or so he thinks anyway)
This made Maka look up, "eh, sure why not."
Pushing her chair out she stood up and got her things ready for the day away from the room. The pair walked out the door as Maka slipped on her long black trench coat and left for a place to eat, ending up at ihop. They ate in an awkward silence then left after soul paid the bill; their next destination was the address on the slip of paper from last night. Since they were on a mission on some island soul didn't get to bring his bike so they had to walk and it was about a mile and a half from their destination to the building. If they took a cab they might miss a clue of some sort so they stuck to their feet.
"Hey Maka…?"
"Hmm?"
"Are you still…about the corona thing?"
Maka froze and soul cringed waiting for the chop or the ear ringing yell, instead her eyes rested on her shoes. "Ah… its only gotten worse since I've realized that there are two people in my heart…" that was all she said no matter how much soul prompted. Suddenly the two stopped and stared at the lost looking, purple haired figure up the road; the person didn't look to happy to be there.
The person turned to face them and their eyes widened. A silence befell the three on that empty street as the sun beat down on them and a warm salty breeze ruffled their hair. It was all shattered when ragnarok popped out of corona's back and began to noggie his meister and waved at the other two.
"What's with you all? You're all on the same mission yet you can't talk to each other?"
Corona looked half dead to Maka and her eye lids lowered slightly and her forehead creased in concern.
"On the same mission? What do you mean?"
"Just as I said pea-brain. Shinigami figured you all were having a bit of trouble since it was taking you forever to get back and sent us to help you."
"I-I didn't know how to deal with it…" corona muttered, earning another noggie from ragnarok.
Maka put on a happy face to shield the pain that was tugging at her heart at being near the two that had her heart in a headlock. "well we were just on our way to investigate a witness, come on."
Together they walked on, it was painfully silent at times but ragnarok always broke in; much to everyones relief. Soon after the on and off walk they the four of them reached the address; a house that looked like it had been well taken care of and once very beautiful but now patched and corroded. The four took a carefully step onto the property which looked like it had been unattended for quite some time, just like the house, only one little dirt path lead the way to the door.
"we'll keep guard, right corona?"
"a-ah."
Maka and soul nodded to the pair as they went back around the corner of the fence, black sword in corona's hand dragging on the ground. Together Maka and soul approached the door and knocked; they figured it was best that corona and ragnarok went to keep guard; a group of four might be a bit intimidating. Time passed and no one answered, this time soul pounded on the door and called but no one answered.
"You sure this is the place Maka?"
Her brow furrowed as she looked from the paper to the address; she nodded. "This is the place and the person looked sober enough to give me the right information."
Soul frowned then placed a hand on the door knob to lean against as he thought. The knob twisted under his pressure and the door swung inward. With nothing to hold him up, soul fell and landed on the floor with a thud, dust rose from his landing. Maka raised her eyebrows then peeked into the building.
"Please excuse us for intruding!" Maka called as she stepped into the dusty building.
Footprints were visible on the dusty floor, fresh, the fire embers still cackled from its recent use and food sat out on a table. Other than these things there seemed to be no life going on in the building and the footprints suggested that the person had left for a bit. As they went in they found the "food" on the table to be raw meat with a rough tear in it. Maka backed away in disgust and soul grimaced muttering, "un-cool". They left the food and explored the house, finding claw marks and blood splatters in different rooms.
Maka stared at all these things as she thought through all the information they had gathered. From outside the two jumped as they heard a voice mingling if corona's and ragnaroks. The weapon meister pair froze and looked at each other; apparently the inhabitant of the house had come back. Thankfully they had closed the front door so he wouldn't be too suspicious but they were still in the house and had to get out before he caught them. It would not be fun trying to explain what they were doing in someone else's house.
Soul quickly ran to a room in the back and forced open a window where he climbed out and motioned for his partner to come to.
"Soul! We're on the second floor!" Maka whispered, but the opening and shutting of the door downstairs got her moving.
"I know, just trust me." He said and let go of the wall.
Maka rushed to see if he was ok, the albino had landed on his rear but seemed to be in one piece for he stood up and held out his hands. Getting what he wanted her to do Maka ferociously shook her head but the feet downstairs made her sing another tune, forcing her out the window. She hesitated before dropping from the second floor and biting her lip to hold back the scream. When she opened her eyes she was in Souls' arms and he was letting out a sigh of relief and began to put her back on her shaky feet.
Taking her hand, Soul lead his meister around the house, avoiding bugs and slithering sounds that came from the waist high grass. All the evidence they had found slipped their mind as they headed back around for their interview. Before knocking on the door again they paused to regain their composure and to check with corona if this really was the person they were looking for. Once it was confirmed the two went back up to the door and knocked.
"Coming," the voice sounded a bit irritated as the owner of it came and opened the door for them. "Can I help you?"
"Um yes, would you mind if we interviewed you about the attack you experienced a few nights ago?" Maka, looking the more professional of the two, asked.
The man raised his eyebrows, "sure, come on in and have a seat."
Soul kept an eye on the dude as he followed his meister into the room and took a seat in one of the chairs. The person closed the door and went to sit on the couch, "ask away."
"Well sir, I was hope you could possibly describe the thing that attacked you, when and where."
With a sigh he answered, "3 days ago around dusk. I was on my way to the club on Shark Street when my date suddenly fell on the ground. Her back had gashes from long razor sharp teeth and blood flowed from the wound. The red of her blood stained her blue dress purple and began to pool around her body. She had been looking a bit antsy since we left my house so maybe it was this demon thing that had her worried. Anyway I turned around to look at the attacker and I found a large beast, it looked very much like a shark in many ways yet like a werewolf in others. Its red eyes gazed hungrily at the blue orb that floated from my dates' body before it seized it in its long fingers and gulping it down. Then it turned to look at me, I was frozen in my tracks but it suddenly just left and I haven't figured out why."
Maka nodded, she didn't look at the person as she thought it through. it sounded a bit exaggerated and in a few ways unlike a kishin egg attack. If a kishin was on a killing spree it wouldn't spare persons' life, especially if it was as close as this man had been and not doing anything. Then the other stories said that he had been alone, while some said it wasn't even him who had been attacked but his cousin. Soul didn't get the things Maka was but he did notice the actions this man made. Like the hungry look he was giving his meister. Then when he had mentioned the floating orb it looked as if he was holding back his tongue to lick his lips.
Suddenly Maka stood up, "thank you. That's all we needed to know."
The man gave a somewhat twisted smile, "no problem, glad to be of help." Then he showed them to the door.
With nothing to do but look around and wait for an attack the three split up to gather more information or clue to what happened and try to find a pattern in the attacks. Maka found herself in a coffee shop looking over all the clues and information. She began to scribble other ideas down on a sheet of paper but she found herself drifting off into her personal problems. Her thoughts just kept going round and round which made her throw an angry sigh at the window, fogging it up. A slight smile appeared as she began to draw faces in the condensation. Then suddenly the images from the rooms and the information began to click together. She originally had this idea manifesting in her brain but the person had come home just as it was about to click. Quickly she began to scribble the ideas down when she felt a persons' presence behind her.
"Well there, you are a rather smart girl aren't you?" the voice was huskier and lower than before but she recognized it.
Maka looked around and no one seemed to notice them, though she knew it was no doubt suspicious. Thankfully she knew this persons habits and she was safe, for now.
Soul found himself checking out the crime scene the victim had said. If the slaughter had taken place only 3 days ago then there should still be evidence like a blood stain or something someone might have dropped; even claw marks from the feet in the ground. He found nothing. With a huff he looked up and down the whole street and the streets beside it. Nothing.
"So maybe he wasn't the victim but the…" suddenly it all clicked.
Why he had looked at his meister like that, the reason he had to hold back his tongue and why his story sounded too exaggerated. With a slight panic soul began to run as fast as he could back to town, cursing himself for not bringing his bike. He didn't even stop when he reached down, his legs continued to take him down streets and alleyways in a search for his meister. The lungs in his chest threatened to burst if he didn't stop running but he ignored their warnings and began to check inside shops. A coffee shop was his last place to check and he ran up to an employee.
"Ha-have you seen a girl about this tall…sandy blond hair in pigtails…and wearing a black trench coat?" he heaved.
The employee nodded, "ya. She sat over there." The person pointed to a table by a window where papers still lay, spread across the top of the table, "she left with some older guy and forgot her papers. Would you mind taking them to her?"
Soul looked sick but nodded his thanks before heading over to the table. He looked over the papers and confirmed them to be Makas' notes on the mission things written on there that he had already figured out and things he hadn't; the things he hadn't known only made him sicker. Gathering them up and stuffing the papers in his pocket soul ran out the door and went to search for corona. If this kishin was as powerful as Maka said it to be, he'd need both corona and ragnarok to save his meister.
Corona had just entered the town and was thankfully on the same road soul was taking to find the two. The sun was setting now just behind corona, obstructing his vision of the two and would have run right past them had corona not said his name as he passed.
"Soul?" soul skidded to a halt as he heard his name.
"Corona?" silently he praised god for allowing him to find those he was looking for so quickly. "Come on, Maka's in danger. Looks like the person we interviewed earlier today was the kishin and he got hold of Maka. She says that his usually habits lead him to taking his victims to his house and slaughtering them for their soul there, unless they put up a fight in the streets. Then he'll take them then and there, and since there's no screaming it must mean Maka was smart enough not to fight in the open and think of a way out later."
He continued to explain as they ran to the house they had been just recently. As they ran they found pieces of paper and other small things of Maka's in the road, she had been trying to lead them to the house. It was dusk by the time they reached the house. When they looked in the window they saw Maka sitting in a chair alone, her eyes darting all around the room and up the stairs. They were just about to go into the house to help her so she wouldn't be weaponless when a creaks and thuds came from the stairs. Maka stiffened and it was obvious that she was scared but as it got closer and closer the fear was turning into determination. The kishin was in the same room now and made its way over its stiff and frightened meal, a toothy grin much like souls', only much more twisted and evil spread on the kishins' face as it ran a claw down the side of his preys' cheek. When she didn't scream out in terror its grin dropped and it muttered some things under its breath before it grew twice its size; now about the size of three grown men standing on each others' shoulder and just as wide.
The look on its face was angrier than just a few moments ago and it took a swipe at Maka. Thankfully she was agile and quickly got out of the way, knowing she couldn't sit and wait it out any longer. Soul nearly fainted and without thinking charged into the room with corona and ragnarok on his heal.
"Soul! Cor-" while Maka was distracted the kishin took this time to wrap his long hairy fingers around her and pick her up.
"Put her down bastard!" soul yelled, his arm turning into a scythe blade and he ran at the kishin. With it being so tall he could only hit at maybe the stomach if he jumped. If he did that he'd be swatted away, instead he attacked the legs hoping to knock the thing over.
"Maka!!" corona also joining in, using screech beta.
With two attacks coming at once the kishin had trouble deciding which to take out fist, seeing as how he only had one hand because he was holding Maka in the other. He flicked soul in the chest when the scythe boy got close enough, and sent him flying into the other attacker. Maka let out a scream of pain as the kishin began to crush Maka's small chest.
"You'll have to do better than that if you want to prevent me from eating this girl's soul." It taunted.
Corona looked stricken and soul cursed under his breath. Together they got up and once again began the onslaught of attacks. Soul soon realized he couldn't do this without Maka, him, corona and ragnarok just weren't enough; to change that he ran, jumped and landed on its bent knee then jumped from there; it was a long shot but he tried it anyways. In full scythe form soul spun through the air in the direction of his meister and once he was close enough to be caught he called out to her to get her attention.
"Maka!!"
Instantly Maka pushed the pain out of her mind and was able to grab the scythe. With as much power as she could muster in her tight situation, Maka brought up the scythe then down on the kishins wrist. Since its attention had been on corona it wasn't ready for the pain and dropped Maka. It was a bit of a fall, one that Maka missed her footing on and landed on her side but she was up and out of the way of another attack.
"It's good to be back in your hands." Soul muttered, "Now beat this basterd ok?"
Maka just smiled and nodded, getting down low then began to attack. She was much faster than either soul or corona and the kishin had to be more aware to block the attacks. Yet no matter how many times she sliced and dodged and blocked there was no progress and the kishin was becoming cocky. Even corona did little damage though took none thanks to the black blood.
"Maka, I'll finish him off now, so don't worry." Corona declared, rather un-corona like, and turned to give Maka a smile. Maka nodded taking a step back to give corona and ragnarok room to resonance.
"Soul?"
The toothy grin appeared on the scythe, the demon wasn't bothering him as much this fight it was that or he had gotten better at tuning out the sick creatures taunts and sentences. "Let's go for it."
"Tamashi no kyoumei~!" the two called out at the same time as corona and ragnarok.
Yet Maka's movements were much faster than coronas' and she went to attack first, yet the kishins' eyes weren't on her but on the other pair. Somehow it had seen a point in the resonance when the black blood shut off before becoming stronger and it took that moment to attack. Just as Maka began her combination attacks on the kishin a blood curdling crunch, snap and a scream filled the air. Still in the middle of her attacks Maka couldn't see what had happened but felt sick to her stomach. With their attack Maka and soul had been able to deal some damage on the kishin but not as much as it had dealt on corona.
While the kishin egg fumed and tried to stop the pain that had just been dealt to him Maka took this chance to look upon corona. Though now she wished she hadn't. Her eyes widened in dismay and her arms began to tremble, even her grip on souls' pole loosened till she completely dropped him and fell to her knees. Anger, despair, disbelief and a very strong sadness spread through her body all at once and she cried out, finally letting the tears fall that had built up without her knowing.
"CORONA!!!!!!!!!!"
Soul went back to human form and helped his meister to her feet. His teeth grinned against each other as he saw the state of their friend; the black blood gurgling and spitting out of the wound in coronas' chest. Even in just the few seconds they had spent looking at the sight the pool had doubled in size. Together they made their way over to the body; Maka was still in shock when they got there. She went straight to her knees in the black blood, picking up coronas' upper half and holding it close the tears continued to flow down her face, the salt water mixing in with the blood.
"m-Maka…?" corona whispered making Maka looked down at the hardly living person. "I'm sorry…I don't know how to deal with this…what can I say to make you smile?"
Her eyes widened and she bit her lip to try and stop the tear flow but they only increased. "Don't worry, we'll get you to stein, he'll heal you like last time. It'll be alright."
Slowly coronas' head shook from side to side. "I-I'm sorry I-I caused you so much trouble. Please smile one last time…? Maka-Chan always looks best when she's smiling."
Maka knew it all along, that they wouldn't get lucky twice. That this would be the last time she and corona ever spoke, she'd have to make it count. She had to grant the last parting wish corona had asked for. Even through all the tears Maka managed to put on her best smile for her parting friend, the one that held the other side of her heart that soul did not. Corona smiled and muttered, "thank you…" before the light faded from her eyes.
With a heavy heart Maka laid her friend down once more and stood, hands clenched, going from sad to angry in a matter of seconds. "Soul, lets' use that."
Souls eyes widened but he said it firmly, "no." as he went back to scythe mode.
"There's no other way and what we were doing before did nothing! And the witch hunter did some damage but wasted our strength."
Soul was quiet as he thought it through while his meister dodged the attacks that were headed their way once again. He took in the damage they were being dealt, what they had given the kishin egg, how much energy it took and what had happened to corona. Finally he gave up, "alright, we'll use that."
Much to his dismay the demon whom he had tried so hard to ignore smiled its large grin and gave a little chuckle. Moments later Maka appeared from behind the curtain in her black dress, a sad and pained smile on her face. "Soul? Let's finish this off for corona."
Soul nodded, "whatever you say." And held out a hand to lead her into the dance.
Maka took it, looking a little down, and followed his lead without protest. Eventually she laid her head on his chest startling soul.
"Ne soul? Do you wish we'd fall in love?"
Maka had gone into her insane mode and was now all over the place slicing with extremely strong blows. Every time she hit him particularly hard and dealt a good deal of damage she would taunt him, yet every time the egg hit her there was not a scratch though it would have been fatal should she not being infested with the self protecting black blood.
"All the time…"
"Really?"
"You bet. Now let's finish this with a demon hunter." Soul stated swirling Maka way from his body and then bringing her back, when he received a nod soul smiled and spun her one last time before letting her go.
Now was the hard part. He had to bring his meister back from the depths of insanity which was no doubt stronger this time around. The area around them was dark and the floor was the liquid from the first time around, floating below the surface was his blond headed meister.
"MAKA!!" he called as he plunged his hand into the extremely dense liquid. Just as he thought, it was harder this time and it kept trying to force his hand back out. But he kept persisting and calling out the name of the one he loved.
Upon hearing her name being called by a familiar voice Maka blinked open her eyes and looked up. Above her, reaching out to her was her partner and the one who had always occupied her heart a little more than corona, the one she had always loved since the start. With all her might Maka kicked and climbed till she was able to grab souls' hand. Together Maka was freed from the insanity and back to her normal self.
"Ready soul?"
"You know it!"
"Tamashi no Kyoumei!!!!" they called, "Demon Hunter!!"
Out from souls' blade popped the large, jagged blade of demon hunter. While the kishin egg was regaining composure after the last blunt whack to the head Maka took her chance and attacked the mid section. "FOR CORONA!!!" she screamed as the blade went through the body and through the rest of the house that was behind the beast.
The beast split in two and fell sideways, leaving the red tainted soul floating in the middle. Maka slid to her knees and down to the floor, her whole body shaking with the force of the last attack. Soul went back to human form to retrieve the soul and add it to their collection and bring them one closer to becoming a death scythe. As he supped on the soul Maka made her way over to corona to finally let out her tears. All the tears she had set aside to finish the battle flowed out and she sobbed atop coronas' chest. She felt terrible that it had taken this for her to realize who she liked the most and that she had been the one to ok the resonance. Yet she had granted coronas' one last wish though it hardly made up for it. Soul walked over and placed a hand on his meisters' shoulder to comfort her, with this incident it would take a while for her to go back to being her old self but he was willing to stay by her every step of the way as well as after that and forever onward.
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Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN any of the Soul Eater Characters like corona or Soul or Maka. I do by chance Own the crazy monster thing that attacked them xD This Story was Based off of two songs that i do not remember the name of but i dont own then either!
Heres another Soul Eater Fluff fanfic. its more of a SoulXMakaXCorona deal that turns into a SoulXMaka as you read xD i really hoped you enjoyed it and please please please reveiw and tell me what you think!!! it will help me on the road to becomeing a better writer~ [even if i have no idea how it'll help me in the future!] this was also requested by my soul eater maniac friend Sora ~ the original with the proper Author notes is found here at my DA~ .com/